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Sol Campbell demands to know “what the hell is going on” at Newcastle after Hughton axe

Sulzeer = not happy. At all.

Veteran Newcastle defender and one-time crackpot Sol Campbell has revealed news of Chris Hughton‘s sacking is, rather understandably, really not going down very well in the dressing room.

Hughton was well liked by staff at the club and 36-year-old Campbell reckons the shock departure will be a blow to morale, regardless of who steps in next.

He told ESPN:

This will hit the players hard. The players admired him and liked him and won’t be happy now he’s gone like this.

It makes no sense. Here is a guy who has done an unbelievable job.

He got the club back into the Premier League and any manager would have been rewarded for that with a new contract, but Chris wasn’t.

The players are sure to be asking themselves, ‘What the hell is going on?’, that is only natural.

When we left training this (Monday) morning none of the players had a clue this was coming. Yes, it has come as a shock, and it will affect the dressing room, there is no doubt about that.

Team captain Kevin Nolan is equally cut up about Hughton’s sacking, paying tribute to the level of dignity the manager showed as he informed his players of the news:

We are all upset that Chris is going. He helped a lot of the lads here with their careers when he was a coach and then as manager.

We will never forget our promotion from the Championship last season and we have to do what he told us. Stick together, make sure we keep the unity Chris has built up and get through this difficult period.

It goes without saying we were shocked by the announcement.

Chris was gutted about what had happened. You could see that. But it said so much about him that, even though he was obviously disappointed to be going, he was still telling me and Joey (Barton) that we had to make sure we had a good season.

There was such dignity about the way he left, which is how he conducted himself while he was the manager.

Just how badly has Mike Ashley cocked this up? Forget shooting himself in the foot, it looks like he’s blasted both legs off.